Nisha Agrawal, a delegate at this year’s Women Leaders of New Asia summit, was a contributor to an Oxfam policy brief entitled “Development After 2015,” which was based on various consultations Oxfam India conducted throughout India. One of those consultations was done in collaboration with UN Women and asked 70 to 80 women’s organizations in India about the post-MDG world in the area of women’s rights and empowerment.

Here is an introduction to the Oxfam India policy brief:

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have been a great laboratory for poverty reduction, with major successes and frustrating failures. These fifteen years of experience provide us the wisdom to do better in a deeply changed world. This paper summarises the outcomes of consultations and studies around the question: what new framework will make a difference for groups in India that face acute poverty and social exclusion? The question brings several challenges to the forefront—addressing inequalities and exclusion; impacting on the politics of poverty in sovereign nations; financing the goals in a context where the role of aid is diminishing. The paper proposes to address these challenges in 10 goals that build on the current framework but will help make a difference for those at the very bottom.

Nisha Agrawal is the CEO of Oxfam India. Since her appointment in March 2008, she has successfully led a complex change of management process that integrated the programs and staff of the six Oxfams that had been previously operating in India. She also led a highly consultative process to formulate Oxfam India’s new strategy entitled “Demanding Rights, Creating Opportunities” that lays out its vision, mission, and programs for 2010-2015. The strategy provides a direction and focus to Oxfam’s work in the seven poorest states of India and with the four most marginalized social groups (Women, Dalits, Tribals, and Muslims). It also provides a thematic focus in the four areas of economic justice, gender justice, essential services, and humanitarian work. Oxfam India is a rights-based organization that funds about 180 NGOs that work at the grassroots level to empower communities and ensure a life of dignity for all